Cooking Light Crispy Pork Medallions with Garlicky Asparagus

We are back from our honeymoon and I'm officially a wife cooking in the kitchen!!! This is one of our favorite meals, tonight we had it with corn on the cob cooked on the grill. Both recipes are from Cooking Light Magazine, where I find most of my recipes. I did adapt the pork recipe slightly as I used dried herbs, my fresh ones all died while we were away on our honeymoon!

Crispy Pork Medallions

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, cut into 8 medallions
1/2 cup panko
1-2 teaspoons dried parsley
1-2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 450

2) Rub mustard evenly over pork medallions. Combine panko, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl. Dredge pork in panko mixture.

3) Heat a large ovenproof skillet over med-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add pork, sauté 2 minutes, or until golden brown (don't add the pork too early!!!). Turn pork. Place skillet in oven, bake at 450 for 8 minutes, or until pork reaches 145 degrees. Let stand 3 minutes.

**Update: I have started using boneless pork chops, instead of the tenderloin. I simply cut off the fat and cut each chop in half. It makes nice, even medallions that I prefer to the products of the tenderloins. It also makes more medallions, so I leave them in the oven for a total of 10 minutes. Definitely worth a try!!

Garlicky Asparagus

Ingredients:
1 pound asparagus spears, trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced (Cooking light does sliced, but I use jarred minced garlic!)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1) Steam asparagus 4 minutes

2) With 2 minutes left, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, cook 1-2 minutes or until fragrant, but not browned.

3) Remove from heat, add asparagus, salt and pepper, toss to combine.